2010-04-29

4/29/2010
Department of International Affairs - Democratic Progressive Party

April 25 Public Opinion Survey After ECFA Debate

Date: April 25, 2010Sample Number: 693 individualsSampling Error：95% Confidence Level, approximately ±3.7%Targeted Population: Entitled voters over 20 years-oldPolling Method: Random selection of telephone numbers by last two digitsWeighted Method: Based on age, gender and residence* Age, gender and residence is based on Minister of the Interior’s published statistics on March 2010

Summary of Survey Results:

Regarding the public’s understanding on the contents of ECFA, 75.5% of the public were unclear and approximately 20.9% were clear.

Up to 90.2% of the population said to believe that before the government signs ECFA, the government must clearly explain the contents in the agreement. There was no distinction between pan-blue or pan-green supporters in this overall consensus.

Regarding President Ma Ying-jeou’s statement, “Both sides signing ECFA is the only solution for Taiwan’s economic revival”, 59.9% of the public said to disagree, while 28.8% said to agree. In terms of pan-green supporters, 91% said to disagree and in terms of independents, 59% said to disagree. In terms of pan-blue supporters, 58% said to agree and 37% said to disagree.

On the statement, “Signing the ECFA agreement will increase economic growth by 1.7% and create 270,000 job opportunities”, 60.6% of the public said they disagreed while 26% said to agree. In terms of pan-green supporters, 92% said to disagree; in terms of independents, 63% said to disagree; and in terms of pan-blue supporters, 52% said to agree and 36% who said to disagree.

Regarding President Ma Ying-jeou’s promise that, “During his term in office, the government will not liberalize Chinese labor workers into Taiwan and will not increase the number of Chinese agricultural products into Taiwan”, 57.5% said to not believe this promise and 36.1% who said to believe. There were 93% of pan-green supporters who said not to believe this statement; in terms of independents, there were 57% who said not to believe; and among pan-blue supporters, 66% said to believe while 31% said not to believe.

On the impact of ECFA on Taiwan’s traditional enterprises, 68.8% of the public said they didn’t believe the government is ready to respond, while 13.3% of the public said to believe that the government was prepared to respond to the impact. Among those who didn’t believe the government was ready to respond to the damages to Taiwan caused by ECFA, 59% of those who said not to believe were pan-blue supporters and 66% who said not to believe were independents.59.5% said to have watched or seen related news on yesterday’s Ma-Tsai ECFA debate.

Among those who watched the ECFA debate, 40.2% said to think that Tsai Ing-wen was more convincing and 39.9% said to think that President Ma Ying-jeou was more convincing.56.6% said not to not believe in President Ma Ying-jeou’s promise that, “Taiwan’s sovereignty will be safeguarded while negotiating ECFA in order to avoid Taiwan’s interests from being damaged”, while 38.1% said to believe the promise.

Regarding Tsai Ing-wen’s standpoint that “ECFA will bring a significant impact to Taiwanese industries and therefore we should even be more careful as well as to suspend the current signing of ECFA with China”, 60% said to agree with Tsai Ing-wen’s standpoint and 29.6% said they disagreed. Among those who agreed, 63.2% were independents who said to agree, and among those who disagreed, 13.7% were independents who said to disagree.